Help

What is this site?

The Video Game History Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. This library is our way of sharing our collections of rare video game history materials. We are funded by donations from gaming enthusiasts like you to keep this library running.

Our library is in early access, which lets us share our collections with you while we're continuing to develop our platform. Expect updates here in the future!

Is this everything you have?

Nope! This portal only represents items that have been processed and have a digital copy available to the public. We are actively working to catalog and digitize as much of our collection as possible, and more materials will be coming to the library on an ongoing basis. For a more complete list of VGHF’s holdings, visit the Library Catalog.

Do you actually have everything here?

Yes! Every item listed in this library is held by the Video Game History Foundation, or if we do not own a physical copy, VGHF has received permission from a donor to share a digital copy of their material. We have documented the sources of these materials whenever possible.

Things on this site are loading slowly.

Our digital archive platform, Preservica, manages a large amount of content for many different archives. Occasionally, the servers will be slow, or Preservica may be busy processing a file to make it viewable in your browser. Please be patient! If your items or search results don't load at all, refresh the page and try again.

Why is this item "Not Available"?

Items marked "Not Available" are either restricted from public access (eg., documents containing sensitive information) or cannot be displayed in-browser by our library system. At the discretion of VGHF staff, individual approved researchers may be granted direct access to these files (see "How do I access restricted and raw digital materials?").

How do I download files?

Due to various technical and legal limitations, public downloads are currently not enabled for our Digital Archive. We are exploring solutions to make certain items downloadable in the future.

For select collections that were meant to be widely distributed, such as press materials, we are planning to mirror those collections on the Internet Archive for ease of use (links available via the Library Catalog).

Can I play games in this archive?

No, for now. With limited exceptions, the Video Game History Foundation does not collect retail video games and does not plan to provide them to researchers.

Additionally, restrictions in United States copyright law currently prevent VGHF from sharing digital access to out-of-print video games with researchers. We are fighting to change this law in coordination with the software preservation community.

Why isn't [a specific item] here?

Processing materials takes time. Our long-term goal is to make as much of our library digitally accessible as possible, but that's going to take a while. We plan to roll out additional material as our resources and labor allow.

There are some materials in our library that may never be digitally accessible. We only share items that we own and can digitize, and we have also do not share items that can be digitally purchased, such as specific issues of magazines. The Library Catalog includes notes about alternate ways to access magazines when they are available.

Some items may not be available due to intellectual property issues, or at the request of the rightsholder or donor. In these cases, we may be able to provide limited access to researchers on a case-by-case basis (see "How do I access restricted and raw digital materials?").

Why doesn't this item have a date, or a title, or anything?

You may have found an uncatalogued digital file that was extracted a CD. Due to the large number of CD-based files, we have not attempted to individually catalog them. Check the record for the entire CD for information about when it was created and where it comes from, and see the "Manifest" for details about every individual file.

If you don't want to see these files at all, uncheck the "Show uncataloged files" checkbox in your search results.

I'm viewing an image in the archive. Why doesn't it fill the whole screen?

This is a limitation of how our digital archive platform Preservica displays images right now. We're exploring ways to change this, but in the meantime, you can also click a button on the page to enter fullscreen mode.

Can I use your items in my video, book, blog post, etc.?

Maybe! Unless stated otherwise, the library does not own the intellectual property of materials in the library and cannot give express permission to reproduce them. But you may still be able to use these materials as fair use! Check out the fair use best practice guides from the Center for Media & Social Impact to learn about your rights.

For some special collections and developer materials, we may have permission from the donor to let you reproduce materials for research purposes. Check the "Conditions Governing Use" notes on each collection for a description of what you can and can't do with them.

It says I need to be doing research to use this item. Am I a researcher?

If you're doing research, then yes, you are! Anyone studying video game history can be a researcher. You don't need any sort of special credentials to use this archive. However, you are generally not allowed to redistribute materials, or reproduce them for profit outside of your research projects, unless stated otherwise.

How do I access restricted and raw digital materials?

Access to restricted materials for private, individual research is approved by VGHF on a case-by-case basis. There is currently no formal process for this; for now, please contact us with requests. We may be slow to respond during the initial launch of the library due to high demand.

We are not able to fulfill all requests and may choose not to provide access to restricted materials for any reason.

I'd like to contribute my materials to the archive.

Great! Get in touch with us and we're happy to talk with you.

I am the rightsholder to materials in your collection, and I do not want them available here.

Please contact us.

Search tips

• Quotation marks (") search for an exact phrase (eg, "Mario brothers" will find the exact phrase Mario brothers).
• Minus sign (-) negates search terms (eg., Sonic -Halo will return items that mention Sonic but not Halo).
• Boolean operators combine search terms:
• OR returns items that contain either term (eg., Quake OR Doom returns items that mention either Quake or Doom, or both).
• NOT negates search terms (eg., Sonic NOT Halo will return items that mention Sonic but not Halo).
• Tilde (~) can be used for a proximity search for words grouped together (eg., "Ken Roberta"~10 will find items that mention Ken and Roberta within 10 words of each other).